


let's find out if love is the size of the ocean;

by 221bdisneystreet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Divergence, Extrasolar: A Klance Charity Zine, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, POV Lance (Voltron), Post Season 6, Soulmates, also the angst is mainly just lance missing home and his family but really that's it, seasons 7 and 8 who? i don't know them, somewhat? idk how to describe it, the rest is cute stuff i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26292694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/221bdisneystreet/pseuds/221bdisneystreet
Summary: When Team Voltron makes a quick rest stop on the ocean planet Rilusia, Lance finds himself longing for home and something more. As he stands on the shore, two moons hang over the sea...Then Keith enters the scene.(written for the Extrasolar Zine)
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 73





	let's find out if love is the size of the ocean;

**Author's Note:**

> oh what's this? ANOTHER zine piece? i'm on a roll, aren't i? ;)
> 
> here is the piece that i wrote for [the extrasolar zine](https://extrasolarzine.tumblr.com/)! i am once again so honored and grateful to have been a part of an amazing project and to have worked with so many talented people!! this experience was truly unforgettable and i was able to make some new friends along the way, so even though i've mostly moved on from the klance fandom, this will always be a special moment to me. and i want to thank the mods once more for organizing such a wonderful zine for a wonderful cause! you all are too fantastic and i love you <3
> 
> this piece was written in 2018 with the idea that it takes place post-s6. i also didn't bother watching s7 and s8 because fuck that noise. so besides the difference in quality between this piece and some of my more recent stuff, this piece is technically canon divergent in that s7 and s8 never happened (duh) and also that lance has long gotten over his feelings for allura (it isn't mentioned in the fic but just an important note to make!). it still is also kinda canon compliant though, since keith has his scar and all that. but yeah anyway just something to keep in mind!
> 
> and a final HUGE shoutout to the extrasolar writers who beta'd my piece!! i know this was two years ago, but all of your advice and suggestions were immensely appreciated, and i love y'all so much! <3
> 
> anyways, i hope you all enjoy!!
> 
> (title taken from "oceans" by misterwives)

Lance never thought he would feel sand again.

His feet sank into the ground. Clumps of damp earth clung between his toes, grains trapped under his toenails.

Lance never thought he would feel wind again.

His hair ruffled under the breeze that scattered tiny pebbles along the sand. Mingled in the current of air were the delightful scents of citrus and salt. He inhaled deeply, savoring each sweet and sharp note.

Lance never thought he would feel the ocean again.

The edges of the sea lapped at his ankles, the rippling waves wrapping themselves around him and then retreating away from the shore. The cycle would repeat itself. The waves would greet themselves with a thunderous applause before bidding a subdued farewell and returning to the water that beckoned them home.

Home.

Lance just wanted to fall backwards and plunge into the sand. He wanted the vast, warm ocean to engulf him.

He wanted to feel at home.

The sand, the wind, the ocean. They all reminded him of home.

Lance gazed into the pitch-black night sky. The blue moon on the right side and the red moon on the left side both shone like pearls, their surfaces spotless and smooth. The ocean reflected the dual hues of moonlight from above, the colors not quite blending together in ideal harmony but rather concretely divided in two.

Bioluminescence.

Lance remembered learning about it in biology class. According to his professor, chemical light emission from marine plankton and other microorganisms would occasionally cause the ocean to glow blue at night. The images of luminous, foaming blue waves that she presented stuck vividly in Lance’s mind. It looked like someone had spilled glittering sapphires from the heavens. New doors of imagination opened up, thanks to that new word. After that, Lance had always wondered if he’d be lucky enough to see this rare and magnificent phenomenon with his own eyes. Now his dream had come true, but not on Earth.

This was Rilusia. An isolated, uninhabited planet with an ocean that stretched for infinity. One that the Galra didn’t consider a viable destination to harvest quintessence or exploit usable resources.

This wasn’t home.

“I figured you’d be out here.” A familiar voice tugged Lance out of his reverie, and he turned to see Keith’s silhouetted figure approaching him. “Not that there’s anywhere else to go on this planet.”

“Heh, yeah,” Lance said, turning his gaze back to the water. Typically, he would have delivered a joke with just the right amount of snark, but he wasn’t in the mood. “The view’s nice, though.”

“Yeah it is,” Keith replied. Lance glanced at him. The blood-crimson moon cast a deep glow on Keith’s face, illuminating his messy raven-black hair. The scar on his cheek appeared sharper, bolder, like a dark brushstroke on an otherwise blank canvas. A flash of red glinted in his violet eyes. Seeing all of the features of Keith’s face in the moonlight, so perfectly crafted and defined, was breathtaking. 

“Uhh, Lance?”

He blinked, his trance broken. “Huh?”

“Is there something on my face? You were staring,” Keith said, his eyebrow raised. Lance hastily tore his gaze away as warmth bloomed in his cheeks. Right before he looked away, he thought he saw a slight, faint redness in Keith’s cheeks, but that might have just been the moonlight.

“I-it’s nothing,” Lance stuttered. “Umm, well...how’s your scar feeling now? Getting better?”

“Oh. I guess...The pain’s not that bad anymore.”

Lance dared to look back at Keith, who gently touched the mark. Keith’s fingers flinched away slightly, although he showed no sign of discomfort or distress. A split-second urge to brush his fingers over Keith’s scar sparked in Lance’s mind, but he quickly buried it away.

“You know...” Keith paused. “I never imagined the ocean would look this beautiful in real life.” His voice exuded mesmerization, a curiosity that accompanied the unearthed pleasures of life and departed when the unknowns became knowns.

Lance gave him a quizzical stare.

“Keith...have you never been to the ocean before?”

Keith stared back at Lance in surprise before he dipped his head. “I’ve seen it in pictures but...yeah, not in real life.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“What? Keith, buddy, my man. You have been missing _out!_ ” Lance exclaimed. “What’ve you been doing your whole life?”

Keith shrugged. “Stuck in the desert, staring at sand dunes, suffocating in a poorly ventilated shack.” 

Lance blinked. That’s right…

Ever since he was young, Lance had grown accustomed to the ocean. He spent his summers swimming and surfing, his autumns building sandcastles and watching watermelon-colored sunsets, his winters eating garlic knots at the pizza shack and roasting marshmallows at bonfires, his springs collecting seashells and observing hermit crabs crawling on the sand. The ocean and everything it had to offer had become his best friend, a lifelong companion, _family_.

But Lance had to remember that not everyone shared that same connection. 

Keith grew up in the desert and was quite familiar with loneliness and abandonment. Lance grew up by the sea and was surrounded by family who cherished him.

Lance didn’t know what prompted him next: maybe a sense of pity, or an innate concern for others, or some other deep-seated, indescribable urge. But suddenly, he had taken Keith’s hand and started pulling him towards the water.

“Uhh, Lance? What are you doing?”

“Keith, you can’t just see the ocean—you gotta _experience_ it,” Lance answered with a wide grin. He waded through the shallow waters, the sand squishing beneath his feet. A faint bridge of purple melted and bled in between the reds and blues of the ocean. What was even more fascinating, however, was the luminescent garden underneath them. 

Miniature coral reefs, patches of seagrass, and algae-covered rock formations jutted from the sand. Clusters of aquatic flowers blossomed in dazzling shades of ruby red and sapphire blue, their open petals drinking up the moonlight. Tiny forests of kelp and anemones danced to the rhythmic ripples of the water. Alien fish with odd, brilliant patterns of scarlet and cerulean swam among their iridescent playground, darting behind rocks and weaving through seaweed.

Lance’s grin spread even wider.

When he was a child, the concept of living, glowing creatures was so magical. Chasing fireflies that danced like stars with wings in the summer dusk, gazing in awe at the jellyfish that illuminated cerulean in their enormous aquarium tanks. In his childlike innocence, it was like a fairytale unfolding before his eyes. And ever since that biology lesson, he was finally able to pin a word to this magic made real. A word that perfectly captured the essence of this spectacle that enchanted him since youth.

Bioluminescence.

With his other hand, Lance tossed drops of saltwater into the air, laughing excitedly as water rained back down. At this point, he couldn’t care less if he was knee-deep and the denim of his jeans gripped tightly to his legs. Exhilaration fluttered wildly in his heart, and it was so soothing, inviting, welcoming. It reminded him of when he first let the sea touch his skin, before he accepted it with open arms.

When the water was up to his thighs, Lance turned around to face Keith and held both of his hands, the moonlight drenching their skin with bright colors. Keith, meanwhile, stared in awe, shifting his gaze between Lance and the kaleidoscopic maze of flora underwater. 

“So? How does it feel?” Lance asked.

“Umm,” Keith hesitated, his eyes finally settling on Lance again. There was a brief lull in the air, a silence that ticked like a clock. Shades of red and blue, dabbled with flecks of purple, painted Keith’s face in a patchwork of light. Finally, the corners of his lips perked up into a small smile. “It’s amazing.” 

Lance grinned. “See? I told you, you gotta experience it!”

Then, he dipped his fingers into the water and flicked droplets of the ocean into Keith’s face.

“Hey!” Keith exclaimed. Lance flashed a mischievous smirk. 

“I’m guessing this is part of the experience?” Keith asked, mirroring Lance’s playfully smug look. In retaliation, he flung a spray of water back into Lance’s face.

“Oh, it’s on now!” Lance shouted.

The splashing evolved into a full-on water fight, the night air erupting in a chorus of giggles and teasing banter. Lance’s chest swelled with laughter as his soaked hair clung to his forehead and the taste of salt frolicked on the tip of his tongue.

How long had it been when he sank into the euphoria the ocean always gave him?

Eventually, the chaos simmered down. Lance huffed out another laugh, running his fingers through his hair. Next to him, Keith continued to let out short bursts of breathless laughter.

“So I guess we all know who’s the winner?”

“Heh, okay fine. I’ll let you have this one,” Keith said, grinning. Lance could have easily thrown back a joking boast over his triumph, but instead he just smiled back. His gaze remained on Keith’s face, on the tips of his hair that dripped with water, on the wide grin that framed his lips, on his eyes that twinkled ecstatically.

“I haven’t had this much fun in so long,” Keith laughed again.

Lance couldn’t remember the last time he saw Keith this happy or even _if_ he had ever seen Keith this happy. But the gleeful expression etched into his former rival-turned-close-friend’s face awakened a fond melody in his heart.

“Me either,” Lance murmured. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of Keith. That laugh, that smile, that look of pure joy...

“Hey, Lance. Look.”

Keith pointed at the sky, and Lance looked up. The red and blue moons were no longer there, no longer two separate orbs. Instead, a single entity, a moon of shimmering amethyst, dominated the darkness.

Just then, Lance remembered something else he learned about Rilusia.

_“For when the two moons become one, so too do the souls of those bathed together in the glow of the eclipse and the ocean—forever intertwined.”_

Lance looked down. Sure enough, the ocean’s surface and every aquatic lifeform glimmered just as brightly as the moon, a violet city thriving and bustling in the sea.

“Lance…”

Lance directed his attention back to Keith, whose face was splashed with purple moonlight. Lance’s breath nearly caught in his throat, and Keith’s lips opened slightly even though no words left him.

Some unstoppable temptation, motivated by an emotion that Lance had kept locked away for too long, compelled him to gently take Keith’s hand, to delicately tangle his fingers in between Keith’s, to softly cup Keith’s cheek, to caress the scar imprinted on Keith’s wet skin. 

And some irresistible longing, some unbreakable desire nudged Lance forward as he slowly leaned in and closed the distance between them with a tender kiss.

And some love that bloomed like the flowers below him kept Lance anchored to the sand, grounded in his kiss, tethered to reality despite how much this all felt like a dream.

Keith happily accepted the gesture as he pulled himself deeper into Lance’s lips. Lance dug his heels into the sand, his heart shining so brightly that it could probably outshine the moon itself.

Their lips parted, and Keith blinked, his expression awestruck. Lance huffed out a small laugh.

“Sorry. I guess now we’re stuck together forever.”

Keith smiled, gently squeezing Lance’s hand. “I guess so.”

Lance smiled back, his gaze fixated on Keith’s eyes, his irises an even deeper violet under the moonlight.

For so long, Lance never expected anything else that could be more powerful than that word _bioluminescence_. But now, he uncovered something that matched it in strength. 

Love. 

And it came in the form of Keith. 

And when Lance sealed his fate in that luminescent ocean underneath a violet moon, that single word took on a whole new meaning.

Love. Keith.

Bioluminescence.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you all enjoyed this piece! i'm honestly unsure if/when i will go back to writing klance fic, but there may still be some hope! i am focusing on other projects in other fandoms right now, though, so writing klance fic is still up in the air.
> 
> in the meantime, if you're interested in reading my other fics, go check out the rest of my ao3! or if you want updates on my current/upcoming projects or you just want to chat with me and watch me scream about other stuff, check out my [twitter](https://twitter.com/mirmirthepanda) and my [tumblr](https://221bdisneystreet.tumblr.com)!
> 
> love y'all! and thanks for sticking around! <3


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